Category Archives: Politics on the left

Socialist distancing

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Part of a note to members from John Roskam discussing a video the IPA has just been released.

We Want To Work is a four-minute video we’ve released at the same time to both IPA Members and the public. It puts a human face to the jobs tragedy befalling Australia. Four Australians – Nathan from Central Coast in New South Wales, Phil from Townsville, and Richard and Julia from Melbourne explain what’s happened to them because of the lockdown and why they want to work.

Nathan and Richard each own and operate a small business, while Julia worked in a small business, and Phil was a pilot working for an airline. Small business has borne the brunt of the COVID-19 lockdown. Because so many politicians and journalists are now so removed from the real economy, this video is a feature of what is happening and what is only now starting to get the attention it deserves. It is noteworthy that on the executive board of the Prime Minister’s advisory panel to help business recover from the lockdown there are four people from big business, three public servants, and one former trade unionist. If ever there was a demonstration of how far the Liberal Party has moved from its base that’s it.

There’s no-one from small business. No-one. Literally no-one. Out of a committee of eight people.

Yet according to the PM “the creation of a new National COVID-19 Coordination Commission…will coordinate advice to the Australian Government on actions to anticipate and mitigate the economic and social effects of the global coronavirus pandemic.” In Australia, small business is 35% of the economy and employs 44% of the workforce.

The importance of small business to the economy and the community rests on many factors including the fact that small business is what drives employment growth in a way that big business doesn’t, small business is what gives the vast majority of people their first experience of the dignity of work, and small businesses and their owners and employees have a stake in society that big business doesn’t have.

I’ve mentioned to you before the work of an American author and demographer, Joel Kotkin. He’s a Presidential Fellow at Chapman University in California, and two weeks ago he wrote a brilliant piece entitled ‘The Death of Small Business is a Tragedy for Jewish community and democracy’. What he said about America applies equally to Australia.

This is some of what Kotkin said about the impact of the lockdown on small business:

“Small-scale commercial production is, every moment of every day, giving birth spontaneously to capitalism and the bourgeoisie…wherever there is small business and freedom of trade, capitalism appears.”— V.I. Lenin

A great connoisseur as well as sworn enemy of the free market, Vladimir Lenin might smile a bit if he witnessed what is now happening to small businesses in the current Covid-19 pandemic.

The longer the shutdown continues, the tougher things could become for many of the estimated 30 million small businesses that employ roughly half of all Americans. The prospects are particularly bleak for restaurants, small retail establishments and “personal service” establishments like salons and gyms whose primary selling point against larger firms has been their scale and familiarity with customers. According to the JP Morgan Institute, 50% small businesses have a mere 15 days of cash buffer or less.

If the shutdown lasts much longer, as many as three-quarters of independent restaurants simply won’t make it. In the end, once the fog of the pandemic dies down, we are likely to see a great deal more empty storefronts and many of our beloved local businesses abandoned….

If you get the chance read the whole piece. The significance of what Kotkin talks about is that it reveals that in the discussion about reopening the economy we’re talking about something much bigger than ‘the economy’ – we’re talking about the future of our democracy. Which is the reason why the IPA made We Want To Work.

They’re all socialists now.

State of ignorance

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Ah Victoria. Not only keeping our schools closed but this as well: Victoria massive $773m deficit revealed as tough restrictions to stay, despite mass job losses.

Victoria is facing a budget deficit of $773 million with Treasurer Tim Pallas saying “the worst is yet to come”.

The March Quarterly results revealed on Friday show Victoria has had its $618 million surplus forecast for 2019/20 wiped out as a result of the pandemic.

Mr Pallas however said the blow was “not as bad” as previously expected but said the numbers were likely to get worse.

Going forward he has ruled out a surplus in the near future saying “these are unprecedented times and our focus is on families”.

“We are not chasing surplus and we will not be posting a surplus in this year’s budget,” he said….

Net debt is expected to rise to $38.9 billion, but Mr Pallas said the debt profile and expenditure would be evaluated in the lead up to when the budget is released in October.

Make sense of this if you can. Labor is trashing the place with no obvious connection to virus control.

Your liberties are being taken away

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This is the title Virologist accuses Fauci of cover-up – Video but just try getting the video. Try yourself, because I could not. Here’s the entire post:

“You need to wake up! Your liberties are being taken away, all because of the fake news that’s out there.”

Dr Judy Mikovits, PhD., molecular biologist and science researcher, accuses Dr Anthony Fauci of directing a cover-up.” What he (Fauci) is saying is absolute propaganda, the same kind of propaganda that he’s perpetrated to kill millions since 1984,” says Dr Mikovits, a former AIDS scientist. She says Fauci was responsible for the deaths of millions during the early years of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

(For those ten people in the world who may not know who Fauci is, he is director of the National Institute or Allergy and Infectious Diseases and has been heading the corona virus pandemic task force.)

Video

Mikovits, who wrote the book Plague of Corruption, is featured in a video attempting to expose Fauci, but the video keeps being removed from YouTube, Facebook and other outlets. That video can be seen here:  plandemicmovie.com.

Here are a few excerpts from the video:

“If we activate mandatory vaccines globally, I imagine these people that own the vaccines (Fauci, Redfield, Gates) stand to make hundreds of billions of dollars,” says Mikovits.

And yet, “there is no vaccine currently on the schedule for any rna virus that works.”

“If Fauci can’t be honest with the public about his connection with this lab (the Wuhan Institute of Virology), then Fauci has to go.”

Doctors wonder: “Why are we being pressured to add ‘covid’ to death certificates?”

Answer: “To increase the numbers…fear is a great way to control people.”

“Doctors are being incentivized to say that people died of Covid-19.” “Yeah. Thirteen thousand dollars from Medicare if you call it Covid-19.”

“In a survey polling nearly 2,300 doctors in 30 countries, hydroxychlorquine ranked as the most effective medication to treat the virus.”

“There is (sic) no dissenting voices allowed any more in this free country.”

“It’s beyond comprehension how a society can be so fooled, that the types of propaganda continue to where they’re just driving us to hate each other.”

“You need to wake up! Your liberties are being taken away, all because of the fake news that’s out there.”

Mikovits also accuses Anthony Fauci, head of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and a prominent member of the White House’s Coronavirus Task Force, of being responsible for the deaths of millions during the early years of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Thanks to Michele Selover for this video.

Again, the video can be seen here: www.plandemicmovie.com

Actually at the time of posting, the video cannot be seen. They may really be taking your liberties away. You may know it, you may be able to observe it. But you won’t be able to do a thing.

The corona virus agenda

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It has been my view from the start that the CV lockdown has been the last (hopefully the last) throw of the dice to steal the presidential election in November. The Democrats, like the left in general, care nothing about anyone, except themselves. Their aim is power, not social welfare. The lockdowns across the world following the coronavirus outbreak is their effort to take the election if they can just bamboozle enough of the population, and mix it in with just enough of their usual corrupt electoral practices. But this latest stunt is the most sickening and vile of all of the efforts they have ever undertaken if that is indeed what they have done. We here in Australia are just following the lead set in the USA.

Let’s review the evidence: Wuhan Virus Watch: Over Half of All U.S. Deaths Have Occurred in Just Five States. Guess which ones (as shown on the map below).

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/cases-in-us.html

Of the nearly 80,000 deaths from the virus in this country as of Saturday afternoon, nearly 48,700, or about 60 percent, had occurred in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

New York remains the hardest-hit state of any in the country by far, having logged nearly 27,000 deaths as of Saturday afternoon. The next-hardest-hit state, New Jersey, had recorded over 9,100.

What a surprise. These are all Democratic states. And then there’s New York, you say. So add this in next: Cuomo’s COVID-19 Panic Killed Thousands In Nursing Homes.

Over the weekend, Democrat Cuomo announced that nursing homes would no longer have to accept patients discharged from hospitals who were COVID-19 positive. Which leads to a question: Why in the world were they required to do so before?

Why? Because this way more people would die. Same states you might have noticed.

Let’s pile on a bit. From: Gov. Cuomo admits he was wrong to order nursing homes to accept coronavirus patients. There’s more here than just an admission of guilt and incompetence:

While the gov’s people imply that some homes simply misunderstood the rules, the real message to operators was that declaring themselves overwhelmed would put their licenses at risk.

Notably, the chief of one Cobble Hill facility not only had his request for PPE denied, he got turned down cold when he then asked to transfer patients.

Then, too, Zucker’s Department of Health has issued other heartless orders during this crisis — the now-rescinded “don’t even try to resuscitate” mandate to EMTs for cardiac-arrest cases, as well as telling at least one home it was OK to keep staffers on the job after they’d tested positive.

To which may be added this: Why an added month of lockdown will devastate New York small businesses.

As the shutdown drags on, New York officials fear that half the city’s smallest businesses are going to fail. Restaurants, bars, shops and salons will become boarded-up storefronts. Neighborhoods will feel like ghost towns.

It’s a grim prospect, yet officials seem ready to let it happen. Gem Spa in the East Village, known since the 1920s for its egg creams, is shutting for good, and the Strand, the iconic book store, says it may also.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo hasn’t indicated when the city will reopen as part of his multiphase reopening plan. Mayor Bill de Blasio hinted on Monday that the process might start sometime in June, but in recent days he has also said reopening is “a few months away at minimum.”

None of this has anything to do with saving lives, specially in New York, since the aim almost entirely is to do what they can to stop Donald Trump from being re-elected. They are sick evil people but the evidence seems to be only one way. To create just enough momentum away from the President to elect a Democrat.

And a reminder what social distancing looked like when I was young.

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Troy has been weighed and found wanting

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These in order from top to bottom are the first thirty comments under the heading Most Liked for Branston’s self declared Non-Rant on Donald Trump. The video is from April 2016. Reading deranged kinds of comments such as Bramston’s four years later reminds me just how much danger we remain in even now. Just think, people like him would vote for a corrupt, senile far-left Democrat rather than Donald Trump. Seriously, there is nothing at all one can learn from these people except how mad the world really is. For some hope for the future, you should read these comments. Not one among the first thirty was left out, but I did leave out the friends of Troy who commented on these comments.

Troy, perhaps you could spend a little more of your rant on the endless persecution Trump has suffered right from initial campaigns to spy on his campaign by the Obama administration which used the entire force and might of the presidency, FBI, CIA, media and the Washington swamp to destroy him and get their darling, Hillary, her rightful place. I bet you’re disappointed General Flynn’s charges have been dropped and that devastating charges will follow for many in the highest levels of Obama’s swamp. Give us an article on Flynn please. What he’s suffered would have destroyed lesser men. He’s entitled to his exentricities after that. He’s exactly what his nation needs, not in any cookie cutter mould but a disrupter who has saved the US from Hillary and the swamp. I’m with him, not you.

I’m sorry, it’s Trumps departure from managerialist sensibility and decorum, so valued by journalists and others in the political class, that has made him so successful as a President. From his entry in public life it’s clear he enjoys a fight at the negotiating table, see ‘Art of the Deal’. He’s put that to work for the American people by re-negotiating dud trade agreements, kickstarting the economy, enforcing immigration laws, bringing the ‘endless wars’ to an end and standing up to China. His whole Presidency can be characterised as an attempt to win a better deal for the American middle-class. Before COVID, not only was the economy booming but middle class wages were rising, something no President since Nixon had achieved. Give me a fighter like Trump over an empty suit beholden to his/her donors any day.

The test, Troy, as to whether anyone is “unfit for purpose” is the ballot box, not the soap box.

“This is not an anti-Trump rant.” AND “Trump is an utterly grotesque figure: a bully, a narcissist, a serial liar and a fool who is devoid of empathy. He is reckless and dangerous. “Not a rant? Quite. I am reminded of the stoning scene from Life of Brian: Are there any women here? ‘No, no no no…” declare a dozen shrill voices…

I think this piece might be described, validly, as a “red meat” article. Fine with me. Look, Trump is exactly the rough, tough, man of much cunning and no couth that is required now as US president. That’s the times. And leaders must be equipped to deal with what the times present. Big unravellings coming in the next several years, all over the world. China, Russia, The Middle-East, the EU -all teetering on their various precipices. No time for lovey-dovey vegans at the top of the USA.

Excuse me. This is nothing but rant. One thing all of these presidents never had to deal with is a hostile 24 hour MSM and corruptible social media. Other than Fox, Obama had a very easy ride and did little with it. People seem to forget that every Republican President from Nixon to Bush has been derided and dismissed as mad, unworthy, stupid. You might have forgotten how the lovies and press dismissed Reagan as a dangerous war mongering dopey failed actor. Now he’s considered one of the best presidents no Democrat would dare to criticise. See how history gives another perspective. I’m not excusing Trump’s flaws and excesses but he’s had some successes too and any reasonable piece would acknowledge them and not exaggerate what has already been wilfully exaggerated. Please stop misrepresenting the disinfectant thing. He clearly meant something like disinfectant. He’s inarticulate and has no filter. That’s why ordinary folk trust what he says rather than being talked at with “sincere” long winded, patronising platitudes where you know you’re being scammed just in a more eloquent way.

Of course it is an anti Trump rant. The venom in the words of this article shocks me. Perhaps the writer could tell us what he would have done if he were president in handling the circumstances where he thinks Trump has failed. That would be enlightening.

Yes he is all of those things Troy. But we have seen the worst version of Trump because of the ultratoxic environment the Democrats and leftist media created. He fought fire with fire. They have lied, distorted and exaggerated any semblance of truth. The Mueller probe, the deranged biased media ridicule, deep state resistance and the constant leaks have been more than any President has endured before. It started before he even came to office. We have therefore seen a constantly wounded bull of a President, floundering gracelessly in a swamp of hatred, lashing out and without the clear air to establish any dignity in office. So if you rewrite this piece, perhaps include those aspects to qualify some of the critique. You have missed an entire dimension of the story by omitting them. They helped create Bad Donald but he really got that economy hopping like few before him and he cut through in many areas of the culture wars and international affairs where few could have. At the end of the day I will be cheering for him because he stood up to the bullies, liars, virtue signalling elites and arrogant swamp dwellers who think they control our world. Look up the word “folk hero” and report back with an edited piece.

Indeed he is egotistical and he says some inappropriate things, but what you have observed is the deep state pushing back. No other president has suffered the treasonist behaviour of the press, the security agencies or the public service. The extreme hypocrisy of the Democrats, the press and social elite far exceeds anything that Trump may have done. He is not a Politician and that is a good thing, because the previous President was a show pony, Bush was forgettable, Clinton got caught out, Kennedy was a Philanderer that dragged the US into the Vietnam war, Nixon was discredited and Carter was unremarkable. The Democrats are determined to divide and conquer the nation and that is causing the nation to disintegrate. Conceivably, Trump may end up being the greatest President of all, when history recalls.

Amazing how articles like this ignore Trump being the first in shutting down travel from China, and had to stare down the media, WHO, the Democrats that accused him of being xenophobic, overreacting and a racists. Trump lead the world, but it does no matter what he does never Trumpers will never accept it.

Troy, deaths per million is the only comparison that has meaning. Look at Britain now for evidence of how not to handle this pandemic. Still with open borders and only just with some semblance of quarantine coming in. Disastrous. Donald Trump may be an unattractive individual but he has achieved much of what he promised to do against irrational opposition. How could Hilary Clinton have been any better with her baggage?

That all maybe true – but it also mirrors the failure of those desperate to replace him. Lots of complaining but no alternative.

Seriously. haven’t we had enough of these rants?

Hilarious! Troy chides Trump for lacking self reflection, then goes on to state that ‘this is not an anti Trump rant’! What is it then – comedic satire with writer as subject?

Troy you should start off your articles with in my opinion, in my opinion he is a great leader and has done more for the average American than most open both eyes and you will see so much more.

Troy, compared with Obama and his cohort of rusted on luvvies this president has been a success

Troy. What has been a disgusting fact is that the Democrats have never accepted the legitimacy of President Trumps election. Trump was elected by the American people as their President for 4 years. The DNC never accepted that fact and from election night have conspired to overturn the legitimate decision by “We the People” I like that Trump has put America first, has actively made the international financial passengers of American largess finally pay their way. Similarly the financial gluttony of the unelected “world” bodies such as UN WHO and endless other QANGOs and NFP professional parasites have been called out. I especially like the way Trump has ceased the mindless situation where in the past the MSN tail was permitted to wag the elected dog. The fact that the established aloof political machine of the privileged class has been brought to task is simply huge dollops of icing on the Trump cake. “We the People” will decide again in November who will be President for the next 4 years. Like many I will be surprised if Joe Biden is the next President. Troy. Your contempt for the America Constitution and American Voters is appalling for someone who espouses to be a knowledgeable student of American History. Like many I look forward to many more Swamps being drained by My President.

Mr Bramston falls for the lethal trap of expecting President Donald Trump to be somebody he’s not, somebody he will never be. Donald Trump is not a politician per se, he’s never gone through the traditional political pathways. That said, he’s remained the person he’s always been, manic, no off switch, no filter, thought bubbled, narcissistic, full on, in your face… we have a good grasp he’s not your regular President in outward behaviour, But is he really different from Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull? Both display all the traits but place the political facade for the people when in office. President Trump has never behaved with that false facade of “better” behaviour. He never will Is that a good thing or not? Regardless of the answer Donald Trump will remain Donald Trump. Whilst he has been uneven during this difficult time, overall America is a different country to Australia. Lots of movement, obsessive about their civil rights, lots of airports and ports. The Governors play a key role and whilst New York has suffered badly their Governor has been praised for his performance. Seems he has because he’s a Democrat and not a Republican like Donald Trump. And there’s the rub. If Donald Trump was a Democrat and President notwithstanding all his behaviours the media would lap him up and say he’s a wonderful breath of fresh air. He is open in his thought bubbles, making everyone think outside the circle The media would say sure he could be a less abrasive type but overall he just gets things done. And they’d laud him for playing with those nasty Republicans’ heads. Unfortunately the chronic partisanship has been a virus in politics. President is far from perfect, he is at times a badly behaved individual, but not every single thing he does is wrong. Far from it But the media have cried wolf so often that today’s complaints of President Trump are largely ignored by those less interested in partisanship.

I can suggest another book for you, Troy. “The worst president in history”. It looks at the legacy of Barack Obama. Not such a saint when you read past the democratic mist.

Trump’s actions in the USA are difficult to uncover as 99% of the media machine spend 100% of their time focusing on any misstep and if there are none they invent them by cherry picking and reporting only what they want the people to hear, the real story is that President Trump has done an incredible job and is positioning America to be great again.

The real disappointment in US politics over the past few years has not been Trump, but the poor behaviour of the Democrats. Instead of an article about that, we get another anti-Trump diatribe supported by a basic claim of extensive study of presidents past. The revelations about the bad treatment of Michael Flynn are just the latest item. The attempt to scotch Kavanaugh, the appalling process of impeachment, the generally dishonest tactics of his opponents are there for even a casual observer to see and write about.

Troy, I very much enjoy your articles. Can you do a similar one on Xi Jinping and his handling of COVID-19?

To compare like nations, one could note that USA Covid-19 deaths per capita are less than Netherlands, Sweden, France, UK, Italy, Spain, and Belgium, but more than Germany, Denmark, Finland, and Norway. Cannot one recall the US media criticizing Trump for his early and correct calls to embargo international arrivals; cannot one recall the Democrats accusing Trump of xenophobia, echoed by their US media allies. And on it goes, a boring, unfortunately now familiar refrain – the Democrats and their media alliance – endlessly critical of Trump. Disappointing, though, to see the refrain repeated near verbatim here by Mr Bramston, though.

Troy raised the “derangement syndrome” in his article. The “derangement syndrome” certainly exists, and it lies with Pelosi, Biden, Schumer, their Congressional supporters, and the Democrats generally given their penchant for nation destroying programs such as the Ocasio-Cortez’s “green new deal”. Trump is the best American President since Eisenhower, and Obama one of the worst.

Troy, talk about throwing the toys out of the cot, how about these facts.
-3.6M people arrived in the US between December and February most of them from China, Spain, Italy and Great Britain.
-Trump was call a racist for closing the borders to China.
-The New York governor opened retirement homes to house Covid-19 patients.
-Trump delivered stronger borders, lower taxes, an end to political correctness, non interventionlist foreign policy and less business regulations.
-He also pulled out of Paris climate agreement, stopped the ban on coal mining and forced china into accepting UN sanctions on North Korea.
How many of your lot have achieved so much in under 4 years, maybe take your mate Rudd’s advice and take a Bex and lie down. Oh and by the way when your mate became PM in 2007 we had $20B in the bank.

Disastrous presidency? On what basis? Undoing all the Obama era mistakes? Not having a crease in his trousers? Has he ever said corpsman incorrectly? Please explain. Whenever I ask Trump haters to spell out what he has done wrong they fall back on the personal attributes such as you have done which is to attack the man and not the ball. It shows a complete lack of intellectual vigour.

Time to fess up. Obama was hopeless. Trump has been trying to clean up his mess. The behaviour of the Democrats is front and centre…a swamp

Firstly, I am not a Trump supporter. However the distortion of facts in this article demands a response.
1. To dismiss per capita death comparisons with the UK, Italy, Spain and France is ludicrous. How can you compare the situation of a country with 350 million people with Australia or Denmark.
2. Trump announced a ban on non-American travellers from China around the same time as Morrison. Both were met by claims of racism. In fact Trump extended the ban to Europeans well before Morrison.
3. Containing the virus largely depends on population densities. It is no surprise that New York and LA have the highest number of cases in the States. Yet NY has a pop density 4 times greater than Tokyo and Manhattan 10 times greater.
4. While the media in Australia has largely been supportive of the plan put forward by Morrison, Trump has had to fight against a media which will distort his words at every opportunity.
5. the USA has never been, and never will be, a country of high welfare dependence, Democrat or Republican, rightly or wrongly. Therefore the vast majority of people depend on work to survive, no handouts apart from a $1200 cheque. Trump’s call to return to work puts food on the table of millions of Americans who are doing it much tougher than Australians.

This is not an anti Trump rant ? you’re jocking me right ! Trump has faired as well as any leader , America is a different constituted country than the rest of the world , their Governor have constitutional power and like the Premier’s of Australia in the recent bushfires were found wanting!

Can Troy name one occasion – just one – where Trump did not follow the advice of his medical experts?
Can he name one state – just one – that did not get the ventilators and other medical supplies they needed?
Can he name one senior Democrat – just one – that supported Trump when he halted flights from China in late January?
Can he provide any facts at all that support this article that are not based on things Trump said rather than what Trump actually did?
Nope. He can’t.

A Trojan Horse’s Ass

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As I understand the concept behind the editorial page policy of The Australian, they provide something for everyone, articles for people with sense, and then utter nonsense for those on the left. Which brings me to Troy Bramston’s column today: A LIAR, A FAILURE, A FOOL UNFIT FOR PURPOSE, the headline found in the paper but not online, proving beyond all need for further evidence that journalists may well be the people least fit to comment upon the news. In case you could not tell, his article is about Donald Trump.

My interest is always in reading critiques of beliefs that I hold myself, to see if my beliefs can stand up to what others have to say. Sadly, this was as empty as the worst of the worst anti-Trump rants you may ever read. And just to prove he wasn’t just ranting, he told us so himself, proving just how lacking in self-awareness he is:

This is not an anti-Trump rant.

What I have always sought but never found anywhere is a list of policy mistakes Donald Trump has made. Start with some kind of outcome that we might agree on as desirable, outline the policy adopted by the President, explain why it is wrong, and then outline what ought to be done instead. Alas, you will live a long time before coming across any such thing. Instead, all you will get are intemperate rants by ignorant fools who cannot marshal an argument.

He begins with telling us how he has since childhood had an “obsession” with the American presidency and America’s presidents. Not proof of much other than that you might know their names, and could place Franklin Pierce in an ordered list. You can also see the kinds of people he must hang out with, all just like him:

Today, like most people, I look on with complete horror at ­Donald Trump’s disastrous presidency, which has diminished the office and damaged the reputation of the US. Trump is an utterly grotesque figure: a bully, a narcissist, a serial liar and a fool who is devoid of empathy. He is reckless and dangerous. He is completely out of his depth in the White House.

Trump has shattered the norms of presidential behaviour. There is not an ounce of dignity or grace within him. He shows no ­respect to almost everyone, including current and former staff, cabinet members, congressional Republicans and Democrats, governors, presidential predecessors and ­voters. There is no self-reflection or contrition, and he takes no responsibility for any of his actions or the lack of them.

Wow. That’s the usual inane list we get with people who have no clue whatsoever although somewhat more intemperate than the average. But aside from his rant on Donald Trump’s approach to dealing with the Chinese flu, there are zero specifics. Here is something that is utterly false as he starts rumbling through his charge sheet:

The full extent of Trump’s catastrophic presidency is evident in his response to the coronavirus pandemic. It is surely one of the greatest and gravest presidential failures. Trump ignored warnings about COVID-19, downplayed its impact and delayed acting. His belated response has been flawed. He blamed others. He misled people about the virus’s impact, and about testing and treatment. None of this can be disputed. Yet he calls the US response “a great success story”. He is not the trusted and reassuring leader needed in a crisis.

And then to show how out of it Trump is on dealing with the Chinese flu, he then says this:

After Trump suggested injecting disinfectant or exposing the body to ultraviolet light as cures for coronavirus, and repeatedly promoted hydroxychloroquine as a “game changer” when the Food and Drug Administration warned it could be dangerous, how can anyone defend him? It is beyond reason for anyone to endorse this mad behaviour.

There are two possibilities here in judging the provenance of the article. (A) He knows better but counts on his readers to be unaware that what he has written has already been shown a thousand times over to be untrue. Or (B) He is absolutely stone cold ignorant of the fact that the President never said any such thing. Whichever it is, it would make him unfit to be expressing his opinions in a respectable journal.

And so to his finale.

In Kate Anderson Brower’s forthcoming book, Team of Five: The Presidents Club in the Age of Trump (HarperCollins), Trump shows no empathy for those who served before him. He claims he has been “treated worse” than Lincoln, who had ­brutal press coverage and was assassinated. The book shows Trump is not only ignorant and ­incompetent but also plagued by a toxic mix of insecurity, vanity and braggartism.

Trump’s admirers make excuses for his disastrous presidency. They are the same people who admire Eisenhower and Reagan or John Howard and Scott Morrison. Trump’s critics, they say, have “Trump derangement syndrome”. But it is demented to suggest these presidents and prime ministers resemble Trump’s leadership approach. Morrison’s response to COVID-19 was timely and informed by expert advice. He has been cautious, reassuring and consistent in his communication.

The US has often been blessed with leadership that has inspired people around the world. No other country has assembled a greater array of political leaders over 2½ centuries. None of them was perfect. But the greatness in America can be seen in presidents such as George Washington, Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt. They had integrity, authority and credibility. They knew how to lead and the rest of the world looked to the US. But not any more.

And what you see above are mostly his words since for anyone with common sense and an understanding of the world in which we live, just quoting back his own words with all his tears and the stamping of his fee, is all one needs to discredit his empty and shallow ranting. I will finish with the first of the comments on his article listed as “Most liked”.

Troy, perhaps you could spend a little more of your rant on the endless persecution Trump has suffered right from initial campaigns to spy on his campaign by the Obama administration which used the entire force and might of the presidency, FBI, CIA, media and the Washington swamp to destroy him and get their darling, Hillary, her rightful place. I bet you’re disappointed General Flynn’s charges have been dropped and that devastating charges will follow for many in the highest levels of Obama’s swamp. Give us an article on Flynn please. What he’s suffered would have destroyed lesser men. He’s entitled to his eccentricities after that. He’s exactly what his nation needs, not in any cookie cutter mould but a disrupter who has saved the US from Hillary and the swamp. I’m with him, not you.

Daniel Andrew’s defining moment

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Whatever Daniel Andrews may do for the rest of his life, closing down Mother’s Day one day in advance of allowing social visits of five or more to each others’ homes will be what he is remembered for best.

Andrews has become the very essence of a political buffoon, recognised that way across the entire country, not just in Victoria. I can see he is beginning to understand the ridicule everyone else is offering on his moronic leadership. A complete clown, but the man with the power to enforce all kinds of idiotic outcomes which he did.

I went looking for Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year, which he did not actually live through so it is complete fiction. But in looking it up, found this quote which fits many a leader, and not just Andrews.

Nature has left this tincture in the blood, That all men would be tyrants if they could.

Whether it is “all” or not may be questioned, but it seems to be mostly true for anyone who seeks political leadership. The only people who can be trusted with power are those who do not want it. The next best thing is to put as many barriers in their way as possible.

The predators and the productive

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Which for some reason calls to mind Max Weber:

‘Every state is founded on force,’ said Trotsky at Brest-Litovsk. That is indeed right. If no social institutions existed which knew the use of violence, then the concept of ‘state’ would be eliminated, and a condition would emerge that could be designated as ‘anarchy,’ in the specific sense of this word. Of course, force is certainly not the normal or the only means of the state – nobody says that – but force is a means specific to the state.

Today the relation between the state and violence is an especially intimate one. In the past, the most varied institutions have known the use of physical force as quite normal. Today, however, we have to say that a state is a human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory.

Note that ‘territory’ is one of the characteristics of the state. Specifically, at the present time, the right to use physical force is ascribed to other institutions or to individuals only to the extent to which the state permits it. The state is considered the sole source of the ‘right’ to use violence.

And just today: Anti-lockdown protesters clash with police in Melbourne. Here are some pictures.

Police officers detain a man outside Parliament House. Picture: AAP Image.

Fed up Victorians brandished signs that said ‘fight for your freedom’ against lockdown measures. Picture: AAP.

Dozens of people flouted social distancing rules despite police warnings last week. Picture: AAP Image.

And “related” as they say in the story: Premier Daniel Andrews labeled “incredibly cruel”.


And this from Cold Hands on an earlier thread. Unbelievable.

I know how she feels

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And then there’s that woman in New South Wales.

Which for some reason calls to mind Max Weber:

‘Every state is founded on force,’ said Trotsky at Brest-Litovsk. That is indeed right. If no social institutions existed which knew the use of violence, then the concept of ‘state’ would be eliminated, and a condition would emerge that could be designated as ‘anarchy,’ in the specific sense of this word. Of course, force is certainly not the normal or the only means of the state – nobody says that – but force is a means specific to the state.

Today the relation between the state and violence is an especially intimate one. In the past, the most varied institutions have known the use of physical force as quite normal. Today, however, we have to say that a state is a human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory.

Note that ‘territory’ is one of the characteristics of the state. Specifically, at the present time, the right to use physical force is ascribed to other institutions or to individuals only to the extent to which the state permits it. The state is considered the sole source of the ‘right’ to use violence.

 

The Face that Launched a Thousand Laughs

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From The DesMoines Register – How this ‘crying liberal’ Iowan became a worldwide meme for those gloating over Trump’s win. Turns out she now lives in Sydney. Here’s the story.

I’ve seen the face of the loser.

I’ve seen the face of dejected Hillary Clinton supporters everywhere.

I’ve seen the look of utter horror at the prospect of living at least four years under the presidency of Donald Trump.

That face has a name: Janna DeVylder.

Yes, DeVylder, 42, who grew up in Council Bluffs and now lives and works on the other side of the globe in Sydney, Australia, has become the international symbol of the inconsolable popular-vote winners of our presidential election. (Online she was zinged as the “poster child for the mentally insane Hillary snowflakes.”)

In other words, she has spent the last two months as one of the world’s most popular political memes.

She’s the face of blue-Democrat America that saw what seemed like a sure claim to the White House slip away in the deep-red rural counties and the Electoral College.

DeVylder has lived a surreal, virtual double life as her meme of infinite varieties has spread far and wide across the internet.

I tried to get Reuters, the photo’s owner, to let us publish the photo in print, to no avail. But just Google “crying liberals” and you’ll see it. DeVylder’s face pops up probably as the very first image: She’s wearing cobalt blue eyeglasses, pearl earrings and a matching necklace and a homemade Hillary pin. She even purchased a secondhand gray pinstripe pantsuit just for the occasion. Oh, and you can’t miss her festive red, white and blue top hat.

But the first thing you notice is her convulsed posture and anguished expression. Her shoulders droop forward, while her head is flung back. Her eyes are scrunched shut. Her mouth hangs open in a frown, and you can’t help but imagine hearing her pitiful moan.

The photo was snapped on Nov., 8, Election Day (although because of the time difference technically it already was the next day in Australia). DeVylder, as if you couldn’t tell from her getup, had voted absentee for Clinton. She holds dual citizenship.

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She and some friends attended an election viewing party at the University of Sydney. DeVylder was so excited that she took the day off work — made easier by the fact that she’s her own boss. She and her husband run their own design firm with a third business partner.

DeVylder expected a low-key event. What she got was a teeming throng of hundreds of American expats and curious Aussies packed into a room with a giant video screen, CNN sponsorship and Trump supporters chanting, “Lock her up!” So she did the only sensible thing: She grabbed the free plastic hat offered at the door and dove headlong into the fray.

DeVylder’s pantsuit and general look made her a magnet for multiple TV and radio interviews. But initially she didn’t notice all the photographers who had staked out the crowd, including Jason Reed of Reuters.

His was the perceptive eye that captured DeVylder’s reaction — not to the final result but merely to Trump’s win of an early state. And like a dutiful news photographer, he quickly filed it for his editors.

Not more than 90 minutes later, as DeVylder still sat in the very same seat in Sydney, she received a message from her friend Matt back in Davenport, Ia.: I think I just saw your face come up on Yahoo News, he told her.

In a relative eye blink she had been zapped around the globe. And little did she know that that was only the beginning.

To be fair, Reed’s original caption was rather innocuous, and didn’t include DeVylder’s name: “Supporters of U.S Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton react as a state is called in favour of her opponent, Republican candidate Donald Trump, during a watch party for the U.S. Presidential election, at the University of Sydney in Australia, November 9, 2016.”

Reed himself has shot photos in Iowa, but never has he had a photo reach so far, so fast.

“I was surprised to see the amount of interest in this image considering the sheer number of similar pictures being taken across the United States on that day,” he wrote to me in an email.

When the photo seeped into social media and the political blogosphere, it took on a life of its own. It seemed to reduce Trump’s surprise victory to a single frame and face perfect for attracting schadenfreude.

Her “conservative friends in the Midwest,” DeVylder said, “who visit different websites than I do, kept seeing it come up.”

Some of the captions and headlines paired with DeVylder’s face:

“When everyone gets a trophy … you don’t know how to lose.”

“Best pics of distraught Hillary voters from last night as they sob and lay in fetal positions. Run to your safe spaces!!! Trump is president!”

“Classes canceled to allow college students to ‘cope’ with shock of Trump’s win” (DeVylder, a mom to two sons and two stepdaughters, is happy to pass for an undergrad.)

Conservative radio talk show host Laura Ingraham tweeted DeVylder’s photo with the quip, “To think we had 18 year olds taking Omaha Beach, at Battle of Chosin, Ardennes ….”

DeVylder, who was lured to Australia by a job and made a life there, may even end up on T-shirts and coffee mugs in Texas.

This is made all the funnier because she wasn’t crying in the photo. As she put it, she was just “a bit expressive.”

But that doesn’t matter because the image managed to unwittingly capture DeVylder’s general feelings about the election. And she likes it. She told Reed as much via email.

DeVylder probably was one of the perfect people to fall victim to this meme: She’s a practical, thoughtful and somewhat bemused Iowan with a psychology degree from the University of Iowa who finds all this utterly fascinating.

Not only has she taken it in stride, she has blogged about it.

She considers it a teachable moment.

“You realize how easy it is to take your eye off the ball,” she said of how complacent she had gotten about her politics, “and you expect that other people are doing things that will keep the status quo that you appreciate, and that the progressive cause is a cause that will just keep going.”

In retrospect DeVylder said that she attended the party feeling a little cocky, expecting to toast a win.

“Even when you think things are good from your point of view that doesn’t mean you can stop working at it,” she said. “That’s a life lesson, right?”

Instead of getting mad, she retaliated by posting her own versions of her meme:

“I’m not crying because we lost. I’m not crying because there’s no trophy. I’m crying because we are losing our collective humanity.”

“Crying, for the lessons of history have yet to be learned.”

“Realizing that this election has brought out the worst in us.”

“The moment she realized we don’t even try to understand each other anymore.”

Just when DeVylder thought her face had been plastered in every corner of the web, it erupted again when Sean Hannity shared it on Facebook at the end of the year, with the timely message: “The Electoral College electing Trump is unfair … says the party that used ‘super delegates’ to elect Hillary.”

Here again, DeVylder tends to get analytical, not defensive. Her meme life has left her feeling that conservatives and liberals alike can be hypocrites. Everybody has confirmation bias. We all love to feel smug in victory.

“We fight in some instances for inclusion and open arms,” she said of her half of the political spectrum, “and yet we draw lines when it comes to people who may be conservative.”

But even for the nicest of Iowans, at some point introspection becomes annoyance. DeVylder would like to think that her digital doppelganger has expired, but she expects to endure at least one more round.

“I’m anticipating that it will be used again for the inauguration,” she sighed. “You just know it will.”

That’s a safe bet for Jan. 20. At the very least, DeVylder seems to have rekindled her political fire. In blogging about the incident, she publicly committed herself to a laundry list of next steps, including:

  • “I will not find joy and boast in other people’s sorrows.”
  • “I will model for my children the way I would hope they would conduct themselves.”
  • “I will not fight hate with hate.”
  • “I will work to ensure more young people engage and vote.”
  • And she ended with a question: “What will you do?”

Who said no good could come from a mean-spirited meme?

I hope we can continue to gloat come November. Otherwise they will have to exchange my face for hers.